01. It's Raining Teens with Aliza Kelly

Helen Grossman, Aliza Kelly

Birthday, August 18th, 1989 sign Leo hometown New York, New York.

 

Helen Grossman

Number of juicy outfits too. Ok. Welcome to the class of 03 podcast. It's orientation week here at the class of 03. It's our very first episode of the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm your host slash classmate Helen Grossman. And each week on this show, we'll discuss one or more subject that made 2003 an insanely and uniquely special year.

Just to name a few of the things that we'll be obsessing over together throughout the course of this show, the Iraq war began myspace was founded itunes launched Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, both went solo. Haa was the number one song on itunes. The Killers sang Mr Bright Side and the White Stripes release Seven Nation Army. Johnny Depp was a pirate nemo was found the OC and arrested development.

The Chappelle show, Ali G show all premiered. There were tragedies too. The Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. SARS the creation of Ice low rise jeans, French fries were renamed Freedom Fries and Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California. Do I need to go on? Ok. No problem. Reality television was defining itself as shows like America's next top model newlyweds, Punk, The Bachelorette, the Simple life Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

They all had their first and sometimes their last season and the fashion Uggs Juicy sweatsuits. The hottest accessories were a sidekick phone and a chihuahua that fit in your purse. As I started doing research about 2003 and thinking back on my own memories of the time, I couldn't shake this feeling that something exceptional happened that year.

It felt like there was a culture shift after y2k and 9 11 that actually marked the beginning of the new millennium this week. In our very first lesson, we're gonna talk about the Vanity Fair, July 2003 issue titled It's Totally Reigning Teens. And as we embark on this journey of 2003 discovery, I thought it would be a good idea to locate the environment in which millennials came of age since we do make up the largest generational cohort in America.

It's not just about what culture was telling us to buy or how to dress or what music to listen to, but really how the generation as we grew into young adulthood was viewed by the adults in the room before my special guest and I do our close reading on its reigning teens. Let's set the scene around the general perception of millennials in 2003 in the very beginning of the article that we're going to be discussing in this episode, the author James Wolcott quotes a statistic from a

recently published book called branded The Buying and Selling of Teens us teens spent $155 billion in discretionary income in 2000 alone buying clothing C DS and makeup. The article quotes from the book by Alyssa Court which came out in January 2003, what the article doesn't quote is the point that Court the author was actually trying to make in her book.

This is the context from branded the buying and selling of teens. Over the last decade, there has been an exponential increase in the intensity that manufacturers employ to sell their stuff to the young raised by commodity culture. From the cradle, teens dependably fragile self image and their need to belong to groups are perfect qualities for advertisers to exploit these and other developments have had profound and negative consequences on millennials.

Although as a society at large, we are inundated by marketing, consuming and finding self definition in logos and products, teens are the most troubling case study. So that's the context that James Wolcott and vanity fair. Completely ignored. Choosing instead to poke fun at the insecurity of teenagers through this article and photoshoot that they do as well as perpetuating this cycle of consumerism by making so much of the article about how many Juicy couture sweatsuits

and which type of phone each teen idol owns and we'll get into that a lot more throughout the episode. But just three years earlier, in the year 2000, the very first book about millennials was published. It's called Millennials Rising. And the authors Neil Howe and William Strauss discussed the ways in which the millennial generation depart from the precedent set by Gen X before the challenging end of the Bush era and the great recession in 08 jaded millennials.

The authors of millennials rising call millennials, a good news revolution. There was a sense as millennials grew up that we were on the cutting edge of history. A sense that translated to a newfound sense of teamwork, making a difference, hopefulness because this isn't a class of 08 podcast yet we won't get into the ways in which this sunny millennial outlook transformed as the two thousands progressed.

The authors in the book try to chart out the millennial life cycle when millennials will dominate political and social institutions. In 2000, the first millennials graduated from high school by 2003, they had reached legal drinking age. Some of the predictions that the authors make for the first decade of the two thousands or the O Os as the author called them, pop music will become more melodic and singable sitcoms will become more melodramatic and wholesome.

As more college bound students from the US and around the world compete for a fixed number of spots. The authors predict that elite schools will become more selective their average sat scores will rise and rejected students and their parents will complain about perceived unfairness in admissions. And this is true. This comes to a head in 2003 when the Supreme Court rules on the famous University of Michigan affirmative action case, the authors say that what millennials

decide is acceptable will be transformed, cleaned up and domesticated, giving a lasting stamp of social approval no longer considered dangerous. And it's particularly amazing reading this text from 2000. When from where I'm sitting, there are multiple marijuana dispensaries and ketamine clinics within walking distance from my house.

The authors also talk about how millennials will make the internet and technologies less chaotic, more reliable. They'll develop community networks and devices that help sort of si simplify the quote, quote infos sphere. Obviously, not all the predictions or assessments made in this 2000 book about millennials were correct or ended up coming true.

The authors predict, for example, that millennials will turn away from entrepreneurship and freelancing. And we all know that's just very far from what actually happened. They also say that millennials will red domesticate dating and place a renewed emphasis on manners, modesty and gendered courtship practices. So with that, it feels fitting to introduce my guest for this episode.

She's my friend, my former business partner Eliza Kelly. In 2014, we actually co-founded and created a line which was an astrology based dating app and a modern take on an astrology brand. Together, we bucked these two predictions by becoming entrepreneurs starting our own company as well as participating in the disruptive new technologies that completely transformed dating with the rise of dating apps as an astrologer and author.

She has used her work to promote empathy and to use astrology as a tool that can be healing as well as empowering. And I have to say I invited her on to talk about the it's reigning teens issue to talk about the fashion choices that were made in this iconic photo shoot. And the conversation that we ended up having was so much more profound and so much more important.

And it ended up becoming about how hard it was to be a teenager at this time. That was such a more important conversation than any analysis of flared miniskirts could ever be. Here is our very first episode of Class of 03. It's Raining Teens with Eliza Kelly.

...

 

Aliza Kelly

My name is Aliza Kelly. I am an astrologer and an author. And in 2003, I was 13 and going through one of the most challenging times of my life.

 

Helen Grossman

What are, what are some of your stand out memories of 2003 of that year?

 

Helen Grossman

Either on a personal level, if you feel comfortable sharing or on a cultural level, if there are sort of artifacts of 2003 that, that stand out to you so much of this year stands out to me personally.

 

Aliza Kelly

And then also as you know, the micro and the macro of this, this was eighth grade. it was the year that I went into high school as well. And this was really the year that I have been unpacking still to date in therapy. 20 years later, for all of this time, this was the year that I lost my virginity. I was very determined to lose my virginity when I was 13, which I think is a really apt reflection of my mental state at this time.

This was the year that I started doing drugs. This was the year that I really felt like isolated. I felt really isolated, really lonely. And I do feel like a lot of the culture that I was being fed and we were all being fed at this time. And with the way that I was, you know, with my sort of personal experience combined with what us teenagers, as young teenagers were supposed to be sort of doing and how we were supposed to be living and the standards we were being held to that.

This was, I felt like such an outcast. I felt like such like I really could, there was no place for me in the world. I felt this really, this loneliness that I would, I remember vividly describing as an emptiness, but it really wasn't an emptiness. It was just, it was a sadness. So 2003 is a year that is, is so loaded in my own memory and also is a year that has so many interesting touch points.

I I feel like, you know, this Vanity Fair article, Teen Vanity Fair article that we're going to be talking about in so many ways is kind of like the the symbol. It is like the, the essence, the the epitome of a lot of the pain and the loneliness and the isolation that I felt. And I know that I'm not the only one who feels that this article, these teens, the way that teens and the consumerism and the capitalism and like this

sort of cookie cutter image that was being plastered over everything on a societal level made people feel really alienated. Yeah, there was so much pressure to be perfect.

 

Helen Grossman, Aliza Kelly

I think in 2003 something that the article references early on is the buying and spending power of teens.

 

Helen Grossman

And I I think that this is where some of that insecurity or perfectionism comes from is this very acute sense of you could just buy your way here. Everything here is purchasable, right?

 

Aliza Kelly

And you know, even the fact that the juicy tracks suits are such an integral part of this article. So bizarre, so strange, but they were really a stress, they were really stressful for me. My family couldn't afford them. So I was always by my family, but I needed it, you know, and it's not wrong that, that was of the time, that was such a status symbol. they're asking the girls to count how many they have, you know, like as not just do you have it? But how many? Because it wasn't just about

having one, it was about having, you know, all the, the velo, the terry cloth, all of the different varieties and colors and then you could have the shorts, you could have like the longer zip, you could have the zip with the hood. Like when I got them, we got them like on sale or my family. Then I remember bought me like a, a fake brand version of it like a knockoff and I was like humiliated. I was like, I can't go to school on this. Are you kidding me?

 

Helen Grossman

I had no juicy outfits. You didn't, I didn't, I did not. My, my parents were not, they didn't want to spend the money on it. And moreover, I think in hindsight now I'm like, it's funny that the most popular clothing item of the era was like very hard to hide any of your curves in and like when you're, when you're a teenager and you're 13 and your body is changing like it would be pretty unforgiving, you know, I'm pretty happy. I don't have any photos and juicy sweatsuits.

 

Aliza Kelly

Were you sad about not having?

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

 

Aliza Kelly

I, yeah, I mean, I didn't even want to have them and I wanted to have them, you know what I mean? And this is the thing with fashion then too, is that like you, it was very unforgiving, as you said, you know, like, and there weren't a lot of different options for different body types. So you had to have this sort of like very lean, very skinny body with like also like a nice cute butt in order for your thong to stick out of your sweatsuit, you know.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah, of course. Right. Well, ok, so let's get into this July 2003 issue of Vanity Fair, which is the Teen Vanity Fair, a cover iconic claims its raining teens and then the story inside profiles, the sort of up and coming millennial power brokers. it's called Teen Engines Riding with the kid culture. And then the subhead of the article is whoa forget the keys to the car.

These kids have the keys to the pop kingdom and they claim that the generation that these stars that the stars in the portfolio represent is the most style conscious splurged upon and media immersed army of Ragamuffins in history. There were 28 stars that were interviewed and had a photoshoot for this article. Some were super famous, others were more emerging. Most of them were from Disney or WB Nickelodeon.

Although we do have like the Harry Potter crew, we have bow, wow, we have Aaron Carter and Solange and Christina Milian. So let's start with the article. Let's start with the actual text. The text was written by James Walcott who is a Boomer guy who is quite resentful of having to write this article. It seems like. Right.

 

Aliza Kelly

I mean, I think he might even explicitly say that at some point in it.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah, I say that for me, the standout moments are the way that he talks about Alexis Bledel. and the Olsen twins who he is obsessed with obsessed, the Olsen twins. I don't know, what were your memories of them when you were growing up?

 

Aliza Kelly

I was a really big fan. By the time, by this time, not so much, obviously. but as a kid, I just, I admired that I was just like James, I admired them so much. I couldn't get enough of all of their funny movies and their, their crazy ragamuffin antics. And right bef right after this, which I guess is the, the spoiler is when they started their coke phase right after this article.

That was because that because we were synced because we were on the same timeline. So like I felt like we were really on similar trajectories and I, and I, and I still love them.

 

Helen Grossman

I feel like they have the most important and like iconic quotes in this whole feature, you know, like Mary Kate, her pet peeve is about the way people eat bananas. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Aliza Kelly

Right.

 

Helen Grossman

And she's like, she's like, when they make that sound, you know what I'm talking about? Like, yeah, that's probably similar to something I would say. But the author also talks about how everyone else in the studio is like, obsessed with them, right? That, like, even the other stars, you know, the Olsen twins walk in and everyone's like, stealing sidelong glances at them is what he says.

 

Aliza Kelly

It was definitely what he was doing at the very least totally.

 

Helen Grossman

But they also, they also say that their, that their inspiration is Martha Stewart.

 

Aliza Kelly

Do you believe that?

 

Helen Grossman

I, I could, I mean, it was preindictment. She was indicted in August 03. So, you know, so it didn't age that well though in the long term, it aged really well, I would say. but they were like, we love what she's done with her brand. and I feel like the longevity of that statement, like they've sort of accomplished something really similar to that and I was really impressed by that.

 

Aliza Kelly

They really show up as like the young entrepreneurs that they turned out to be.

 

Helen Grossman

What surprised me the most is the number of times that the author talks about brands in general, like, you know, these stars as brands, which I was really not expecting, you know, he talks about Hillary Duff trying to turn herself into a brand with like I think her brand is called Duff, stuff like just stuff with duff stuff with Duff. Yeah.

 

Aliza Kelly

Yeah. And similarly, I was also really surprised with the use of the term millennial. I really didn't know that it was already in the vernacular at all until, you know, really we were in the tal end having just graduated from college, which is almost like 10 years after this, you know, a little less than 10 years after I didn't really hear that term start to be thrown around. So it was really interesting to read that and to see that and to see the way they define and describe a

millennial because I do think that that is correct. I think that the way that, you know, a millennial especially now compared to Gen Z, like we are so different and a lot of the descriptors used here are very much what we grew up with. And maybe it's because of people like James who then established what those norms are, you know, maybe it's not so much, it's because of who we are and because of what was actually being fed to us all along the way.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah, I, when I, when I read this piece, I thought something really similar like, oh, this is, you know, probably an early example of like a define the millennials think piece that we end up seeing again and again and again in media through the 20 teens, you know, like definitely through when the 2013, 2014, because I remember

graduating from college and all these articles coming out about how, what are millennials? Like, why did their parents never tell them they were bad at things like we were?

 

Aliza Kelly

Why are they having brunch and why are they eating avocado toast? Yeah.

 

Helen Grossman

Right.

 

Aliza Kelly

This article wouldn't have existed within the gen X context. This, there is no Gen X equivalent. I mean, I guess you have like the Feldman's from the eighties but they, that was like a or like Drew Barrymore, right? Like there are certain like child icons but their stories are so loaded and so like disenfranchised seeming whereas what they're trying to do with these is make the teens in control even though of course, like the teens are not in control.

The teens did not arrange this article, arrange this like hyper sexualized photo shoot, you know, like this is not what the teens did, the teens are like going along with it because they're fucking teens, you know.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah, I mean that even just the wording of like it's raining teens and teen engines riding with kid culture. It's like there is this sense of like whoa, like the teens have the keys to the kingdom like it's totally raining teens like we have no idea. Yeah. Right. I think there was also a population boom, right?

Like boomers had Children a lot more Children for example, than Gen X are having. And so there was this moment of like, whoa where did all these like teens come from, where did all these teens with money come from? Let's get them to spend their money on stuff, you know?

 

Aliza Kelly

And, like, do teens really have money? You know, like, maybe these teens do when we're talking about the spending power of teens, we're talking about the spending power of their parents.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah. We're talking about them asking their parents for $20 before they go to the mall. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And it is funny because the way that the teens are actually described in this article is like, at one point he calls them urchins, he calls them Ragamuffins. Like there is this, like, I don't even want to call it Boomer speak. Like it feels a little, you know, it's like, what are we in the Great Depression? Yeah. Yeah.

 

Aliza Kelly

It's the silent generation.

 

Helen Grossman

It's such a funny representation because obviously Vanity Fair's readership is not teens, maybe they were trying to appeal to teens through this, through this issue. But that's what also really struck me, like, who is this article?

 

Aliza Kelly

For exact? No, that, that, that was definitely the biggest standout to me. a teenager is not reading this article, you know, like a teenager might skip ahead to the pop quiz section and see sort of like what the, you know what the answer is of their, of the celebrities are. But a teen is not reading this, like, freaky think piece, you know, like this is not so, like, who is the intended audience of this? And, and why?

 

Helen Grossman, Aliza Kelly

Yeah, their parents, they're, they're perfect parents.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah. Yeah. There's a creepy sense here almost of like, when are these people going to turn 18? You know, we definitely get that with the Olsons. We definitely get that, you know, with several of these women, especially in the photos, you know, the way that they're photographed, it's like there was almost like a national countdown to when the Olsen twins turned 18, right?

 

Aliza Kelly

I think it was in like, I think there was, it was in like an Eminem song.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah, it was such a fascination. Yeah, probably. Yeah. What do you think if, if this is a gene a piece that's attempting to, like, define the generation, what do you think he actually defines other than millennials or dog people?

 

Helen Grossman, Aliza Kelly

Chihuahua people, Chihuahua people?

 

Aliza Kelly

I, I mean, I really feel like it is a, it's a, it's a statement of consumerism. This was a lived experience for me in, in my own universe with my own privilege set and my own sort of like, you know, where, how I existed and who I was adjacent to at this time. How much money your parents were willing to give you? or you know, how much money you had access to?

Was it a huge part of sort of personal style and access, you know, looking a certain way, having certain clothes to fit that having certain, like, you know, having a certain lifestyle around you was really pervasive at that time in a way that I'm sure it is also now. But I do feel like now we have more broad conversations, you know, we, we've expanded what that can look like and there's many, there's more, I guess, as they say on tiktok, more niches, right?

There's more like subsets and subgroups of that. So it's not just one singular experience, but at that time, there was really one singular experience that was being emphasized. So that's really, you know, that's my takeaway from it is the the consumerism piece.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah, that was probably the pitch right? That he was given by the editor or whatever is like this youth discretionary spending was 100 and $55 billion in 2000 alone in the year 2000. I mean, so like, let's talk about what are they spending on? And like this is a huge market and that does feel like that's sort of the the meat of the piece.

The one thing that I was curious about is like, what do we think about this assertion that girl power propels Tween teen culture where cute guys are the reward for a greater, deeper self realization and chick solidarity.

 

Aliza Kelly

Oh Is that in the beginning when they're talking about Bend it like Beckham? Yeah.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah. The the Sleeper head of the year. Yeah.

 

Aliza Kelly

Yeah. I mean, and that I this is when I was like, wait, who wrote this? You know, like, what, what man wrote this article? Certainly, you know, going back a few years earlier with the Spice Girls, you know, like there was, that was a really interesting wave of feminism, but I would say that we had already deviated pretty, pretty,

like aggressively from that by the time that this article came out by the time you have like, you know, teens getting their skirts blowed up by, by, what was it? Oh, by nothing.

 

Helen Grossman

It's so weird that he goes from saying that the girl power is the propellant of this whole era. But then what would the Harry Potter series be without Emma Roberts? Bossy Boots, right? It's totally simultaneously girl power is what propels us, but also the only female character in this, in the most sort of important franchise of the early two thousands is this bossy girl and she's, you know, Bossy boots.

Yeah. So it's, you know, we're, we that, that's obviously like editorializing from Mr Walcott, but it does feel like there's, you know what, we're getting a really specific sense of what girl power is supposed to be, right?

 

Aliza Kelly

And who's defining girl power? Yeah. And like, and what we're what these taste makers allegedly are, are calling and, and sort of classifying as girl power where there is like, so nothing, I mean, these girls are being like mocked throughout the whole interview. You know, even these questions are dismissive and they are patronizing and you have certain, you know, you have like, it feels like you have certain participants who are being good sports and then you have certain

participants who are like a little Snakier about it. But I don't think anyone is like, I mean, if you have this press opportunity to speak with Teen Vanity Fair and it's gonna be this huge like massive article with this giant spread in the middle. And they're saying like, how many Juicy guitar outfits do you have?

 

Aliza Kelly

Like that is so patronizing, you know, and like they all of them felt that there was this sort of like reaction to this article and some of the girls in it and I can't remember who I can't remember who was Mandy Moore if it was Hillary Duff, many of them have come forward even Rachel Wood is that she cried the whole time Hillary Duff was miserable and stressed out.

 

Helen Grossman

I mean, they all, it seems like universally a pretty negative experience and it's also 28 people. That's so many people. It's a wrangle for a photo shoot. You know, not only that, of course, there were interpersonal things, there were competitive, professional rivalries. Hillary Duff and Aaron Carter had dated when they were 13 and they broken up in 2003.

He also like kind of cheated on her or left her for Lindsay Lohan. Famously, she's in this photoshoot with Lindsay Lohan in a pillow fight. I mean, that's just uncomfortable and insensitive. Like I can imagine being a vulnerable teen girl already stressed out about your body and how you're gonna look in this national magazine. And then here you are with all these people who you're also like competing for roles with, you know, like there's, there's such a, you know, I can, I can

imagine as a teenage girl going into this scenario and being so stressed out by it and then you have poor Alexis Bodell who's 22 obviously doesn't want to be there. You know, Gilmore girls is a huge, huge, huge hit at this time. And she's like they ask her who her crush is and she's like, I'm so disillusioned by all of it and then he makes fun of her for being introverted and says she should get a cat. It just seems like it was really not a fun bonding experience at all.

 

Aliza Kelly

No. And like why would something like this be, you know, to really, to treat all of these different teenagers as cattle in this way, you know, to give them these stats and to like pair them next to each other. It's so revealing and it's so like the clothes that they're wearing, the skirts are so short and everyone has their stomach out and it's like, of course you're gonna feel, yeah, creepy about it. You know, it's not gonna be a good, the, the feeling is not gonna be comfortable.

 

Helen Grossman

Well, let's get into the photos because that's such a big part of this by Mark, who's the Vanity Fair photographer. He does all the Oscar photo shoots and stuff. The cover of the, of the of the magazine featured nine women. The issue itself featured 28. So the people who made the cover are Amanda Bynes, the Olsen twins, Mandy Moore Hillary Duff.

Alexis Bledel is like inside the fold of the cover. Evan Rachel Wood, Raven and Lindsay Lohan and they're all wearing pink shades of pink Mau I would say like rose, rose, rose.

 

Aliza Kelly

Yeah.

 

Aliza Kelly

Barry rose and silk rose and yeah.

 

Helen Grossman

Sort of shimmery. A lot of shimmery cargo pants. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of pockets.

 

Aliza Kelly

I'm looking now at like Mary Kate Olson and her torso line like that also looks like actually it was just like sliced like, you know, and there was full, you know, full on Photoshop at this time like Adobe afterward. Kobe Sweet was, was used and beloved at this time.

 

Helen Grossman

So yeah, you can see it on Amanda Bynes too actually on her torso as well. Oh, it looks like it was shaved. Yeah. Yeah. It looks, it's a different texture than, than what the end of a shirt would look like.

 

Aliza Kelly

We could probably assume that they probably made them all have bigger boobs and made them skinnier and even though this isn't like there's not like explicit sexuality within this. It's not like they're wearing bikinis. You know, if we know that in posts that they're being enhanced to be to have different proportions, then obviously there is this sexualization that is happening here pretty explicit.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah, the next year in 2004, Lindsay Lohan has like a huge spread in vanity fair like in a bikini like she turns 18. You know, it's like the shift is quite palpable and it's like you get the teen version here of like almost angelic in her shimmery and then you get a very sexualized version like a year later if that, right?

 

Aliza Kelly

And as I'm looking on the cover too, I see at the very bottom, this only looks like Teen Vanity Fair. It says with an asterisk II I guess like I'm not really sure totally what that means. But again, going back to like, who is this for? Who is the audience of this? I mean, is this audience for adult women who then feel like they need to compare themselves to teen girls?

 

Helen Grossman

I think it's it was probably like people freaking out that regular subscribers would be like we want like this is an adult content, you know that they were worried that they had, you know that because Teen Vogue comes out in 2003, their first issue was in 2003. So there were a bunch of teen magazines emerging at this time and I wonder if they were like, we don't want people to think that this is like a different issue of Vanity Fair.

 

Aliza Kelly

Right. And Vanity Fair is very much sort of like a trade magazine too.

 

Aliza Kelly

it's, it's sort of an insider magazine, obviously it's still a fashion magazine but it has, it's always sort of had like roots in the entertainment industry and Hollywood of releasing and breaking stories that are within the industry and it's like the society pages, you know, interestingly, actually the editor at this time is Graydon Carter.

 

Helen Grossman

who would he in 2003 commissions a profile of Jeffrey Epstein and the reporter in 2003, every single person that this reporter interviews mentions the girls. So she includes it in the article and it was edited out because Graden Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair said that he believed Epstein quote unquote because I'm Canadian. Wow. Yeah. So that also is telling us a lot about like the ethos of the magazine at the time and why these like teen girls. That's, that's the vibe here.

 

Aliza Kelly

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah, that is wild. What an interesting context for this.

 

Helen Grossman

Totally. Let's, let's flip from the cover. We have AJ Troth from Even Stevens Emily Van Kemp from Everwood, Brittany Snow and Aaron Meek. And they're with like motorcycles. Like these people can barely drive yet as like the sort of teen engine. This is the first image that we're getting in this article, like, what do you think it's saying?

 

Aliza Kelly

I mean, I think that we always, we all know that like motorcycles are like a sexuality tool. They're like a phallic tool. So it's, and you have like the boy girl pairings on that, you have a lot of like hand touching holding. Yeah, I mean, the way that AJ is grabbing Emily's stomach to me, like the energy from this doesn't feel like he did that on his own.

It feels very much directed. All of these photos, feel extremely directed. And they feel like, can you put your hand here? Can you do this? Can you lean back? Can you do you know, like it, none of these feel like they are natural organic poses or postures that these kids would do?

 

Helen Grossman

They actually both look really uncomfortable.

 

Helen Grossman

AJ and Emily, the body language is really stiff except for Aaron Meeks, who's happily, well, who's out, you know, he's leaning out of all of it.

 

Aliza Kelly

That's why he, that's probably the happiest pose that he did because he was sort of separating himself from it. Starting us off with, with, with this pairing I think is really indicative of the rest of the sort of like heavy direction that the photographer and the whole style team did with these shoots, right?

 

Helen Grossman

And we get really clear perspectives on femininity and masculinity. The next image that we get is Ashley and Mary Kate.

 

Aliza Kelly

Yeah. I mean, they were really lucky in this shoot. I don't know what else they had to do, but I would imagine that they probably got to shoot together as opposed to, with the other people. So, and they are sisters, their business partners, they know each other so they were able to just sort of do their own thing and still have the direction.

And I also, like, I can't stop looking at like Mary Kate Olson's like pants unbuttoned and like coming off of her. I don't know why that's happening. But again, like, I don't think that she would have done that. So it's there. But they were able to also just sort of be contained to the two of them, which is very lucky.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah. Yeah. And Ashley, they, they have this contrast here of like, Ashley not smiling, Mary Kate doing her tight lipped smile. I mean, the Olson twins never smiled in photos like that was their thing. Like, it's crazy that myspace and Facebook like emerge at the same time that they're the most famous people around because they like, really taught everyone how to do like the duck face smile.

Like I remember kind of emulating that Mary Kate has this more like grungy look. Ashley has like a very soft, there's, you know, cherry blossoms and birds on her pink dress. So there's a very, you know, a differentiation there.

 

Aliza Kelly

She's also wearing a kabala bracelet, which is also so important for.

 

Helen Grossman

Do you think those are her bra straps on her side?

 

Aliza Kelly

I do think they are. I do think so. Why did we have the bra straps being placed on the shoulders?

 

Helen Grossman

I think to give a little hint of a bra.

 

Aliza Kelly

Yeah. The same way that we had a thong that would be pulled up to see, you know, to see what was going on underneath the juicy sweats. Yeah, a little peekaboo

 

Helen Grossman

in contrast and let's talk about solange, the image itself, we have solange holding a can of spray paint up against a wall that's been graffitied. She's sort of standing very suggestively with this spray can really short mini skirt, really low cut shirt and like kind of a news boy cap.

 

Aliza Kelly

Definitely a full news boycott and then full ballet slippers point shoes. So, you know, I guess there's a correlation between some of the things that they say in their little pop quiz and how they dress them. The first job is the background dancer with Destiny's Child. So I guess these ballet shoes are a nod to her being a dancer.

 

Helen Grossman

Lange's outfit is so distinct from the color story of the whole article. You know, she's wearing a brown mini one of the flared minis and this lime green shirt with a peekaboo bra moment happening. This is really a distinct outfit. It really stood out to me.

 

Aliza Kelly

The setting is different. It looks like it's in a bathroom. Yeah. like a locker bathroom. It wouldn't surprise me if this was taken at a different time than the other ones.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah. I mean, right after Solange we have Christina Milian and it's, it's, to me it's like we have these two black women who are being hyper, hyper, hyper, sexualized, in a way that a lot of the other women here aren't like, so overtly sexualized or salon even being placed in front of graffiti. You can't really divorce the subject and the placement, right?

That everyone else is like, you know, we're on like a motorcycle, she's in a bathroom, graffiti it and has to hands of graffiti. What are we supposed to take away from that? It feels like the treatment has really been differentiated here for her.

 

Aliza Kelly

Totally. Yeah. And then going down to Christina Milian is like frightening but I guess looking at the years she's also the same. She's also 21 or 22 right?

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah.

 

Helen Grossman

She's a little older than the rest of the group.

 

Aliza Kelly

Yeah. So is this why they were allowed to just basic?

 

Aliza Kelly

I mean, just like have her in a bikini top with like a tiny skirt.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah, maybe because she's over 18.

 

Aliza Kelly

But yet we're still, this whole article is about them being teenagers, right? So like, even if she is older, she's, it's still within the context of us seeing these teenage girls So within the context of us seeing and experiencing these teenage girls, like we're, we're not like doing the math to register how old she is where she might as 14. Yeah. Yeah. So like for all of us who are consuming this, we're assuming that this is a 14 year old girl.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah,

 

Aliza Kelly

we are.

 

Helen Grossman

No, it's true. It's true. Let's go back to the to the pillow fight

 

Aliza Kelly

if you were to say, like, do you remember this Vanity Fair article? What stands out to you? It would have always been the posture that Lizzie mcguire, excuse me, Hillary Duff. I went fully back to 2003, her posture in it. and how, now, you know what I can say is how like stylized it was, you know, like how this is not the organic posture of somebody who's in the

middle of a pillow fight. Like, I don't know when I do a pillow fight, I look like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Like, I'm like, I'm like going in double hands, like, like ready to.

 

Helen Grossman

She's too, she's like doing a yoga pose. Yeah. Right. It's her Evan Rachel Wood and then Lindsay Lohan. Yeah, just three girlies having a pillow fight for Vanity Fair.

 

Aliza Kelly

Naturally.

 

Aliza Kelly

Obviously, these feathers are all coming out of the pillows from how hard they've been hitting each other with these pillows.

 

Helen Grossman

Yeah. So we have Evan Rachel Wood who looks miserable, you know, you can tell like this isn't a good shot of her. They didn't even bother photoshopping her boobs. You can, you can tell like her tongue is sticking out. She's like barely flopping the pillow. You can tell she's not really having it. Hillary Duff.

 

Aliza Kelly

They got a great action shot. That posture, that sort of awareness of the camera, the awareness of how she needs to control and hold her body is really palpable to me. You know, I remember this because I remember like I wouldn't have at the time felt, you know, been like, oh this is so calculated and this is there she's approaching this with so much awareness of

like her body and in space and how it's going to be photographed. I think I would have registered this as like, oh my God, she's like so pretty, you know, why is she so pretty?

 

Helen Grossman

Look at how effortless she is she her character, the whole vibe of Lizzy mcguire was that she was like this awkward girl just like us. But then you see photos like this and you're like, oh she's so relatable. Look at how much fun she's having in this pillow fight.

 

Aliza Kelly

I would be really curious to see what the other shots from this shoot were though.

 

Helen Grossman

Oh my God. I know if this was, if this was the shot they chose, it was probably slim pickings. I have to say not great. You don't like it. Listen, I love it. I love it. But I think it really is. It's like whoever was, Hillary Duff's agent, like, clearly had control over that because she's really the one that comes out of this looking, looking good. It's true.

 

Aliza Kelly

It is true.

 

Helen Grossman

Looking at all the images and reading the articles. It's like the version of teen hood that we're being sold is you can buy perfection, but you're buying it looking like an adult. Right.

 

Aliza Kelly

Right. And being judged by the adults, you know, being still being, you know, your quality, your answers, your attractiveness being determined by adults. It's not teens on teens, it's adults and their lecture eyes engaging like the relevancy of teens. If we want to look at it from less of a pedophile point of view, maybe it's adults feeling out of control, you know, maybe that's why the teens are taking the wheel.

You know, it's like the adults feel like they are that their generation is, is no longer as relevant as it used to be. So this is a way of sort of like trying to regain control over something that feels like it is slipping between their fingers. On that note, I I'm off to be a 33 year old then.

 

Helen Grossman

Thank you for doing this incredible deep dive with me into this issue.

...

 

Helen Grossman

Thanks again to Aliza for such a thoughtful reflection on the Vanity Fair, July 2003. It's reigning teens edition. Here's the thing. The truth is I don't actually have a grand unified theory of 2003. I have some thoughts. I've done a lot of research on the year, but I really hope that it's something that we can figure out together. This is a show about memory, personal and collective and while my 2003 was interesting, it's certainly not the point of this podcast.

So if this show brings up memories or ideas for you, please share them. I'm really interested in how this year shaped your life and how you remember it. You can call in and leave a voicemail at 724, class 03 or write an email or send a voice note to class of 03 pod at gmail dot com or you can visit the website class of 03 podcast dot com to get in touch.

I would love to hear from you. Now, one last segment before we go, each week on the show will feature our song of the week and it was almost impossible to choose the inaugural song of the week for this show. But ultimately, to honor the complicated legacy of the its reigning teens article and photo shoot. Our song of the week from 2003 is none other than milkshake by Kelis.

You know, my milkshake brings all the boys to the Yard. The song was released in September 2003 and it peaked at number three on the billboard 100 in December. Of that year. And actually, the song was originally written for Britney Spears's album In The Zone. It was written and produced by the Neptunes A K A Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. The song itself, I mean, you know, it, it's a tease, it's giving belly dance.

It's beat relies almost entirely on a hand drum and a diner bell. The lyrics are just full on innuendo couched in this seeming innocence. So it felt like it was a similar vibe to the its reigning teens issue. At least on the surface. I know you want it cheese eggs. The thing that makes me what the guys go crazy for, they lose their mind the way I wind I think it's time.

So according to Kelis, a milkshake is whatever makes a woman feel special. And in a 2004 interview, she said the milkshake represents the essence of a woman. It's that thing that men are drawn to about women and what separates one sex from the other. So apart from regularly referring to making boys go crazy. What I love about this song is that Calise really feels like she's our sort of elder millennial teen who is imparting her wisdom on to us, but she warns us she'll have to charge to

teach us how to bring all the boys to the yard. It's a price I definitely would have paid in 2003. And to be honest, when I listened to this song it makes me feel like I probably still would. That's our song of the week Milkshake by Kelis. If you have a song that you'd like to request for a future episode, please share your thoughts at class of 03 pod at gmail dot com or in a voicemail at 724. Class 03. Class of 03 is a completely independent podcast and a labor of love written, produced and

edited all by me, Helen Grossman. If you like this show or if you just want to relive 2003, please consider subscribing and rating the show. And if you're feeling generous leaving a review, our theme song is by Luke Schwartz and Evan Joseph of Sawtooth, who also made most of the wonderful original music you hear throughout this episode. Show, art is by Maddie Herbert of Dame Studio. Thank you again for listening. Until next time class dismissed.